Christina Hendricks on why Anne of Green Gables is her ultimate beauty inspo

Since the Mad Men series finale, we’ve been in Sterling Cooper withdrawal, willing Kiernan Shipka, January Jones, and Jon Hamm to return to us, via a new Netflix series or primetime drama. Well, we have good news, Joan Holloway fans: Christina Hendricks has a new gig playing Trudy, the seductive ex-wife of a draft dodger in Hap and Leonard, premiering on the Sundance Channel this week (for Canadians it debuts March 4 at 10 pm EST).

It’s only six hour-long episodes—but it’s just the fix we need. In honour of Hendricks’ return to the screen, we talked to the Clairol spokesmodel about life after Mad Men, beauty rites of passage, and how her trademark red hair has Canadian roots.

Anne of Green Gables was the inspiration for you to go red originally, when you were ten years old?
“Yes. I thought Anne was so unique and so special. I just loved everything about her. I liked that she was different.”

Also, Gilbert Blythe liked her so he obviously endorsed the shade.
“He was dreamy!”

I read that when you first coloured your hair, you felt like yourself immediately. You felt red fit your personality better than your natural colour, which is blonde.
“It always seemed to me to be a bit more unique and unusual. I always felt a little bit unusual or different. It felt very natural. Of course, I have such fair skin so it looked like I could have been a redhead, which helps.”

Mothers can be strict about their daughters colouring their hair, wearing makeup for the first time, and all that, but your mom was totally cool with it.
“She was practical. When she let me colour my hair at ten years old, it was a rinse. It lasted a couple days and it was something she thought would be fun for us to do. I don’t think I wore any makeup until I was in high school. She would let me go pick up Wet ‘n’ Wild lipsticks and wear them at home for fun to dress up. I had to wait to get my ears pierced. I had pretty normal deadlines for all those beauty things. She thought it was fun. When my brother wanted to be Flash Gordon she would put Sun In in his hair and wash it out. She was a fun mom.”

I know you like to colour your hair at home. How often do you do it?
“It depends. When I was working on Mad Men, it had to be the exact same vibrancy all the time. It had to be really carefully done. We would do it at work every couple of weeks—it was no big deal. Before I started my workday, we would freshen it up. I’m not a big salon person. I don’t like sitting around in salons for hours and hours. For me, it’s more convenient to be able to do it at home. I can do it on my own time and it only takes a moment. I’m not driving across town to go sit there. For me, it’s actually easier.”

Speaking of Mad Men, what are some of your favourite hair moments from the show?
“Megan Draper had some pretty amazing ‘dos. There was an episode where the Drapers were supposed to have gone to Italy and January Jones’ character had this tremendous updo. I think it even had curls. I believe we won the Emmy that year for hair. It was quite amazing. Even though my hair was the same pretty much for eight years, bless those hairstylists—they came up with every version of an updo that you could imagine.”